Liking the Epic, I must confess

[Jason A]

Just worked with an Epic running at 25% and it makes a world of difference. In the past the ones I worked with were running at 35 and to me sounded at least 40% louder. We did some car interiors and I truly could not hear it on my Cub 01, or 8050. I strongly recommend checking with the camera dept. if they have the upgrade if possible. Will save everyone a headache...well not the camera dept...they don't care either way anyhow.

I just confirmed with the Red Support people that the new software version will allow taking the fan down to 25%. Not sure how much of a "real world" difference that will make. Of course, if the ambient temperature goes up, the fan kicks into high gear.

[Zack]

How long did you roll for though?

[Audio Daddyo]

Good Question Zack.

[Toy Robot]

Which brings to mind another question: If the 'upgrade' allows the camera to run at 25% fan speed, what is the increase in temperature of camera? My point being, how long now before overheated cameras are blamed on sound department for asking to lower fan speed?

I'm not going there until I hear that thing is stable for hours at 25%. Apartments in summer with no AC on and windows closed? No way the camera survives IMO.

Very much looking forward to hearing war stories.

[Zack]

I did a shoot 2 weeks ago with it running at 25%. We were interior office, and the fan would kick on and auto cut (even when set to manual) around 4-5 minutes of rolling. Not ideal for doing interview shooting..... so, we kicked it up to 35%+ i believe which gave us around 10-12 minutes iirc.

[Jason A]

2-10 minute takes, 12 hour day. Definitely not interview type situation. Still, way better than it use to be.

How long did you roll for though?

[dlwilliams]

Worked with an Epic for a commercial the other day-- they recorded directly to the Pix240, Audio was easy, syncing easy-- a bit of a chore for the AC to ge the Pix going but they simply bypassed the problem. Fan noise was not a prob for this shoot. (the refrigerator and furnace drowned out the noise from the camera:)

/dw

NOTE Edit above--

Sorry Jim it was the 240-- not the hot off the press one. . .

[Jim Feeley]

So they were beta testing the PIX 260? Interesting. What did they think and how did it compare to the 240?

[BondAudio]

I've had mixed experiences with the Epic.

I recently did a run 'n gun doco - shot on Epic. I was sceptical but it worked surprisingly well.

TC jammed thru Ambient Lock It ( held quite well, just re jammed after lunch) and scratch mix sent thru sennheiser wireless (mini jack in).

I've had other shoots that have been fine too. I find sending audio thru the sennheiser works really well, untill.....

the other day cam dept. had the new XLR attachment. Everything was going fine until after lunch the camera kept shutting down.

The cam dept weren't sure what it was, so being the first time that camera had audio input, they thought it was that.

So no audio input after that!! ( dont know if this was the problem or not, I think the Epic still shat itself with no audio input).

Could you imagine if it was sound dept crashing every 10 mins??

Another thing that is annoying is there is no audio when playing back thru Epic. The first time shooting on it I thought I screwed up, levels were bouncing and audio output was on. But later was told audio playback something that will be available in a firmware upgrade?? Anyone hear that?

The jet engine effect when in standby is pretty funny. I was holding the roll for a plane going by last week, ( cam cut and went into jet engine mode).

The AD , "Is the plane gone yet ?" Me "Ummmmmmm..."

[Toy Robot]

I wanted to mention that with fan noise as has been discussed, one of my problems with this camera is proper room tone. I have to ask camera department to roll the camera so the room tone matches what is happening during shots, because getting room tone while that thing is on standby is like using room tone from the deck of an aircraft carrier.

But camera department often doesn't want to roll and fill their solid state drives full of useless video, nor do they have the ability to control the camera's fan speed once it's too hot beyond a certain point.

For this reason, on RED shoots (EPIC & SCARLET in particular) I'm constantly asking for room tone. I tell them why, and in post they will figure out that I am right in the end and they will either thank me (silently, of course), or they will ignore me on set and not be able to properly cut scenes without heavy editing.

Best of luck RED users.

[studiomprd]

" How long did you roll for though? "

Until the end of the take.

[Sean McCormick]

Just finished an indie flick here in Austin using an Epic and we weren't able to have any take go over 5 minutes before it went into hairdryer mode. Does not bode well for the summer, as ours are extremely hideous. Went through three Red One bodies on a flick last June before we got one that could hang the rest of the shoot. I'm always caught up on Words With Friends....

[Marc Wielage]

"Hairdryer mode." Oh, I'm gonna use that on my next Red shoot...

[Bob Marts]

Question about the Epic clock: I'm starting a movie on Monday and the specs call for jamming TC into an Epic - not feeding it with a sync box. How well does the Epic hold TC?

[soundslikejustin]

It doesn't.

[Marc Wielage]

Question about the Epic clock: I'm starting a movie on Monday and the specs call for jamming TC into an Epic - not feeding it with a sync box. How well does the Epic hold TC?

Great until you reboot the camera, power-cycle it, or change out a drive.

Actually, in fairness to them, I think it no longer has a problem with jammed timecode when they change out a drive.

[donhale]

I have my first Epic shoot on the 8th and 9th of May. Single camera, and certainly double system. I agree with everyone, that if audio is not requested to be fed into the camera, it's a non issue. An external time code generator, Denecke, will be my only gear on the camera. It's a nice luxury to have a decent sounding scratch track for dailies, but in the long scheme of things it's really not necessary unless it's specifically requested. For many shoots with the Red and the Alexa under my belt I am sure it's a no brainer. There have been some cases where I have fed audio into either the Red or the Alexa via a high quality wireless feed on request. Had an opportunity last month for a 6 day shoot with an Epic, but they decided on the Alexa instead.

Any first time do's and do-nots with the Epic? Please chime in. I am all ears. It may be a case where the Editor or whomever may want audio fed to the camera for whichever reason.

Don Hale, CAS

[Mark LeBlanc]

If there's ever 2 Epic's on set and one is not in play, request to turn it off during takes because of the noise.. Also, the frustrating thing is how much noise those things put out during rehearsal.

[Marc Wielage]

I have my first Epic shoot on the 8th and 9th of May. Single camera, and certainly double system. I agree with everyone, that if audio is not requested to be fed into the camera, it's a non issue.

A couple of times on recent shoots, I've walked over with an SR receiver and a plate (and a small battery pack) with cables and said, "OK, where would you like your wireless audio feed?" And the camera guys roll their eyes and say, "no, no -- we're goin' film style." (Apparently, this means MOS.) Hey, it makes my job easier -- one less thing to worry about.

I have to thank Wilcox in Burbank -- they recently made me some very slick TA3-to-mini-balanced cables that are tailor-made for an Epic or Scarlet and a wireless receiver. Really beautiful job. I still hate using mini-plugs for any pro camera, but at least these look good and do the job.

Any first time do's and do-nots with the Epic? Please chime in. I am all ears. It may be a case where the Editor or whomever may want audio fed to the camera for whichever reason.

There have been reports (some cited in the thread I started elsewhere) from Red users who reported crashes when the audio cables were initially connected. In fairness to them, I think this has been solved in the last six months, but you never know what software/firmware version the camera is running. (I believe they're up to firmware v3.0 right now, as of March 2012.)

[studiomprd]

Welcome aboard, Don!

[Doug Beatty]

Any first time do's and do-nots with the Epic? Please chime in. I am all ears. It may be a case where the Editor or whomever may want audio fed to the camera for whichever reason.

Make sure you request to disengage the audio limiter, it's rather aggressive. And as stated before, if you are running a return feed from the headphone jack make sure the levels are all the way up. Also, there is a delay in the return that can't be adjusted- another gotcha.

We just finished a weekend shoot with Scarlet and we had zero sound issues snaked to camera via Wooden Camera's XLR adapter box. If you ever get a chance to bill out for one of these I highly recommend having it on Epic/Scarlet shoots.

[Richard Ragon]

I friend of mine, just brought over his new Epic.. We ran some test on routing sound in and out of the camera.. But, the most interesting thing that he showed me, was THIS video right here..

http://www.red.com/learn/workflow/audiosync

Wow.. I just always figured that sound sync was just done in the editing.. But if you watch this, it takes sync to a new level!! Done via the DIT person on set even..

Well.. darn.. It looks like I'm going to have to get that RED sync cable and a TC box now.

-Richard

[Jason A]

Was talking with another local mixer today and found out that the Epic I was working with that was so quiet at 25% also had a newer fan design. Apparently the newer (not sure when this started) builds have a totally new fan and as I stated before, makes a world of difference.

Just worked with an Epic running at 25% and it makes a world of difference. In the past the ones I worked with were running at 35 and to me sounded at least 40% louder. We did some car interiors and I truly could not hear it on my Cub 01, or 8050. I strongly recommend checking with the camera dept. if they have the upgrade if possible. Will save everyone a headache...well not the camera dept...they don't care either way anyhow.

[BondAudio]

Question about the Epic clock: I'm starting a movie on Monday and the specs call for jamming TC into an Epic - not feeding it with a sync box. How well does the Epic hold TC?

A few months ago I worked on a doco with the Epic.

I jammed TC from my recorder to the Epic with my Ambient ACL203 Lockit. Worked well, even with battery changes, reboots etc.

I jammed again after lunch, otherwise there was a slight drift over a 10 hour day.

[Olle Sjostrom]

Listened to a scarlet the other day, must've been a new version, it was dead silent standing an inch away from it. Of course, the "electrical buzz" that often is the bigger issue with the red one, couldn't be heard over all the other sounds in the room. I then asked "how long is it silent?" and he answered fleetingly. That guy was a rental dude... So of course he doesn't know much.

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